Reshared here— So much to like in terms of questioning, line of argumentation, and ideas being posed here from John Avlon and the usual suspects at The Fifth Column. https://substack.com/@wethefifth/note/p-186911701 A few key things really stood out to me and got me excited: - There is a genuine opportunity here to distance from the illiberal extremes in favor of a common-sense politics that’s not “centrist” for centrism’s sake or “split the difference,” but by addressing the institutional and incentive structures that are repeatedly delivering poor results; - Voting systems are one part of this problem, because they force us to the extremes and push out representation for many Americans (just look at the latest Gallup poll from January showing only 27% of Americans identify as Republican, 27% as Democrats, and 45% as independents); - Overspending is the other half of this problem—constant fiscal deficits that blind the real trade-offs and incentives structures to governance driven by (in many cases well-intentioned, many not) instincts to solve everything through the state from both parties (implicitly through fiat currency debt financing); - A through-line I don’t think got as much play and I don’t recall explicitly stated: the crisis is about trust, legitimacy, legibility, and incentive misalignment. Definitely worth a listen. Got my attention immediately. This is more of the conversation I think we need to be having.